Doesn't mean we're not enjoying it. In my opinion, knowing whether it's real or fake doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the show. Ever watch a "how they did the special effects" documentary for a movie; do you enjoy the movie less knowing how the special effects are done? I just find extra fun in speculating on what's real and what's not because Top Gear hovers on that line so brilliantly.Oh and why are people unable to just enjoy the show and thus feel the need to pick it apart under the microscope?
In any case, Manic Moran does have a point, it would be pretty amazing if it did land, but then again the comedic value of it blowing up was pretty good too.
My original reason for thinking it was scripted was the explosion which was way, way too big for the couple of solid fuel boosters left in the Robin, so I figured it was packed with some purpose made explosives. However, upon looking at the frame by frame, as some others have, it is very clear that the explosion is a completely different shot.
So I'd agree that perhaps they didn't really want it to crash, but when it did they edited in the explosion to give the scene some more kick. That seems pretty plausible; just seeing a hunk of metal plink into the ground wouldn't make for a great scene, but capping it off with a huge explosion like that gives it some great kick and makes up for the "failure".
Last edited: